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Characteristics of fake guru
Recently I signed up for a course for mindset cultivation and realized it was one of those fake guru scams and they tried to “funnel” me in with some cheap course to upsell a mentorship program that costs a lot more money. Lesson learnt but also not sure why I didn't see it coming faster. Anyway, here is my summary of the characteristics of fake gurus:
1. Sleazy website that sells a "course", a "solution" that would promise to get you to any type of thing you could dream of (making xxxx money in a month, have girls/guys eyeing for you and competing for you, blah blah blah). Combined with sleazy sales tactics such as "only x amount of time left for the deal", "only you can see this (exclusive for today)", "originally $999 (now $49)" etc. etc.
2. Claim without backing: this fake guru claims to be a billionaire making a ton of money each month but I couldn't see his name in any major billionaire list etc. or even much media coverage other than more than a million Instagram followers (which is a different game)
3. Focused on the "image" : you name it, money, fancy cars, 6-pack abs, model-like body, good looking girlfriends/boyfriends
4. Vague massage that borders on being manipulative: makes you feel good and pumped at the moment but without real substance like honest advice, challenges or the pitfalls, what exactly was learnt during the process
The internet has become a wild place and these fake gurus have nothing to prove of themselves but they are marketing geniuses praying on the vulnerable. I hope that more honest people who have done things actually make their messages and life lessons spread than these people.
Great list!
Another couple good ones for me:
- No basic logic in their teaching: for example, generalizations (from general to every single case), jumping to conclusions (from a single example to every other case)
- Lack of nuance: black-and-white thinking, "laws" that work and apply to any situation, etc. Etc.
Those aren't only for fake gurus but also covers poor/biased teachers.
The difference is that the poor teacher doesn't know any better while the fake gurus may be doing that on purpose because he knows most people won't ralize and that it's more effective to convert the best target audience (the more gullible and those who still need to "learn the world").
But for the person looking to learn it's similar.
